Iron Man
"I will serve this great nation at the pleasure of myself. If there's one thing I've proven, it's that you can count on me to pleasure myself." - Iron Man Anthony Edward Tony Stark, the adopted son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark, was born on Long Island. History A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study electrical engineering and later receives master's degrees in electrical engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company. Birth Of An Iron Man While overseeing a military demonstration of his technology in an active war zone, Tony tripped a booby trap that killed his escort and lodged shrapnel in his chest. The gravely injured Stark was taken captive by the terrorist leader Wong-Chu , and was informed that within a week the shrapnel would penetrate his heart and kill him. Wong-Chu falsely promised Stark that if he built a powerful weapon, he would be allowed to undergo an operation to save his life. Even though Stark realized the tyrant was lying, he agreed, hoping to gain time and access to tools. Stark was given access to a small laboratory with another captive, the renowned Asian physicist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Professor Ho Yinsen , whose work Stark admired in college. With Yinsen acting as his assistant, Stark designed and built an electrically powered suit of armor with a pacemaker-like device that enabled Stark's heart to keep beating, the armor was also equipped with heavy offensive weaponry, which was known as Iron Man Armor Model 1 Donning the suit, Stark connected it to its power source, an electrical generator. Lying on a table Stark was helpless until the suit was fully charged. In the least fortunate turn of events, Wong-Chu decided to check on his prisoners. Knowing that if they were found all of their work was for nothing, Yinsen decided to sacrifice his own life by distracting Wong-Chu, giving Stark the extra time he needed to charge the armored suit fully. As the Iron Man, Stark avenged Yinsen's death and scattered Wong-Chu's guerrilla troops. Then, still clad in his armor, which was necessary to keep his heart beating, Stark made his way toward the front lines, trying to escape enemy territory. James Rhodes, a pilot with the United States Marines, had been shot down by rockets while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Rhodes managed to land safely and was attempting to get his helicopter air-worthy when he encountered the wandering Iron Man. After Iron Man helped Rhodes fight off an attack by enemy forces, Rhodes allowed him to drain the helicopter's batteries to recharge his armor. The two continued to make their way back to American forces and stumbled upon a hidden rocket base. Stealing an enemy helicopter, they destroyed the site and flew to the nearest American base. After coming back to America, he redesigned the suit. Stark made the existence of the suit public. He concealed the suit's true origin, as well as the fact that he himself had to wear the chest plate to live. Stark made it known that he would soon manufacture the suit, which he called "the human machine," for sale to be then public. Dark Regin With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could possibly exploit, including repulsor generators. The only copy of that database remaining is in Stark's brain, which he is trying to delete bit by bit while on the run in one of his extra armors. As Norman Osborn has him hunted as a fugitive, Stark travels worldwide on his quest to wipe out his mental database, going so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped as a suicide attempt could damage the wrong parts of his brain while leaving Osborn with enough material to salvage the right information. When Osborn personally catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the Norse-god superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal despite Stark's offer in the message to stay in his current state if it would make things easier and Pepper's own uncertainty about the fact that Tony can come back when so many others cannot. Meanwhile, in Stark's subconscious, he is trapped in a scenario where figments of his own mind are preventing him from moving on and returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who attempts to and succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. It turns out the backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means that he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions such as breathing, blinking and a heartbeat due to the brain damage he sustained. Civil War During a televised raid of a house containing escaped super villains from the Raft, the explosive villain Nitro detonated himself killing the majority of the New Warriors, children at a nearby elementary school and other local residents. In the wake of the tragedy, the federal Superhuman Registration Act was passed, requiring all super-powered beings to register their identities and subject themselves to federally mandated standards. While Tony spearheaded the support for the Act, convincing Spider-Man (Peter Parker) to publicly unmask in support of the Act, Captain America led an underground resistance defending heroes’ rights of privacy. Stark was accepted the position of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Superior Iron Man After relocating to San Francisco, he built himself a new, all-white armor and handed the citizens the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that could offer beauty, health or even immortallity, for free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man like a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging the app an exorbitant daily fee of $99.99, maki ng many of them desperate for more to the point of resorting to crime. The Extremis 3.0 fever caught the attention of Daredevil, who confronted Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but was easily brushed off. Iron Man later used Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, if only to prove his point. Although Daredevil deduced that Stark had actually added Extremis to the water supply and the phones simply transmitted an activation signal, Stark retaliated by subjecting Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others while he reprogrammed Extremis to activate via a signal Murdock could not detect. When Tony Stark sought a new chief of security, he considers Prodigy, Victor Mancha and the third Beetle, before giving the position to Scott Lang. However, Lang declines the job, moving instead to Miami to stay near his daughter Cassie. After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination was the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decided to help him, but this minor act of redemption was too little too late in the eyes of Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an A.I. based on Stark's mind, created after a similar instance where Stark's mind was altered by external forces in the event of Stark going too far. This culminated in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the A.I. uses Stark's various old armors to attack him.108 Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the A.I. backup, Pepper states that she has used her own business acumen to buy up a major news outlets and plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that even if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him. Appearance He first appeared in the comic issue #39 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series''.'' Powers and Abilities He have no powers, but Tony's body had been enhanced by the modified techno-organic virus, Extremis, but it is currently inaccessible and inoperable. His abilities are Tony has a genius level intellect that allows him to invent a wide range of sophisticated devices, specializing in advanced weapons and armor. He possesses a keen business mind. =